How Do You Make Decisions?
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deuteronomy 29:29
Decisions can be paralyzing, can’t they? Do you sometimes just stand in front of your closet and stare? Or possibly in front of the fridge? You may not think about it very often but we have a ton of choices in this life. Don’t believe me? Pause for a few minutes and consider the choices of cereal at your local grocery store. It’s almost disturbing how many variations there are of Honey Bunches of Oats.
Now take this into some more important life decisions. College? Spouse? Big city or small town? Make money or make a difference? You’re starting to get anxious just reading this aren’t you? Ok. I’ll stop. But there’s the thing, most Christians agonize, wrestle and ultimately become terrified over making the wrong decisions in life. Because of that, the way we sometimes approach big decisions is that we’ll try to wait for a ‘sign’ from God.
You know the drill. Say you’ve come down to 3-4 colleges that have accepted you and you really like things about all of them and just can’t decide. So you pray (which, of course, is very good) and then you wait to see if somehow God will show you the right one. Maybe it’s down to University of Tennessee and University of Georgia, and you’re driving down the road and see a UT sticker on the car in front of you. “It’s a sign! I’m supposed to go to UT!”
Well, that’s probably not the best way to make your decision. It’s true that in the Bible God often did guide certain people in very specific ways, but the vast majority (even of those in the Bible) are simply called to rely upon wisdom. Now, this is a pretty big relief when you think about it.
God is not ultimately devastated if you choose the ‘wrong’ college. He is more concerned with the question of “why you do what you do” and “what you’ll do with your life wherever you find yourself.” What God most desires is that you are faithful to him wherever he places you.
This means we don’t have to spend so much time worrying about whether or not we are in the right place, or with the right person, or wearing the right socks. Instead, we can ask ourselves, “Okay, God has me here right now, and what does it look like to be faithful to him in this place, with these people, wearing these socks?”